Lonergan is just right for England call

Preston 0 West Bromwich 0

Andy Lonergan, England’s No1. That might not roll off the tongue readily about a keeper who has yet to make his Premier League debut, but Ross Wallace believes both will come true.

Preston midfielder Wallace is certain Lonergan will play in the top flight and convinced that, once there, an international call-up would not be far away.

“Andy is going to have to get in the Premier League first and play games there,” said Wallace. “But he is still a young keeper and has plenty of good years ahead of him.

“Andy has been superb all season and last season as well.

“We will find it hard to keep hold of him because he is a top goalkeeper. Hopefully we will reach the Premier League and he will be with us, but there is no doubt that he will end up playing there.”

Lonergan, 25, has fewer than 150 Championship appearances to his name and spent four seasons on loan at Darlington, Blackpool, Wycombe and Swindon.

But he has grown in stature since establishing himself as first choice at Deepdale, and was the chief reason Albion had to settle for a draw from this top-of-the-table meeting which, even at this stage of the season, suggests both these sides are well short of top-flight quality.

Lonergan’s three saves from Graham Dorrans, the best in injury time, stopped West Brom nicking the points.

Wallace added: “It was a pretty bad game and a draw was probably the best result. We cancelled each other out.

“We looked dangerous from set-pieces and they were dangerous on the break. The team they played showed quite a bit of respect for us and we couldn’t really get on the ball.

“Our previous result against Reading was poor, so it was important we got something out of this one.

“But Albion will go to places and win most matches and probably go up with automatic promotion. I’d say they are the best team we have played.”

After three successive defeats, at Arsenal in the Carling Cup and Crystal Palace and Barnsley in the league, a dull draw hardly looks like a return to form for stuttering West Brom. But goalkeeper Scott Carson believes it will be a turning point.

Albion’s former England keeper said players had been shaken by the back-to-back defeats which followed the 5-0 thrashing of Middlesbrough at the Riverside last month. But he reckons the jolt was just what was needed to ensure there will be no complacency.

“It came as a bit of a shock and we didn’t expect it,” said Carson. “Maybe we took our foot off the gas.

“A lot of people had a few things to say, but we were trying to be positive and we are pleased to stop the rot.

“The two league performances were not up to standard and uncharacteristic from us. We got rocked by a couple of injuries and it upset our flow. But in this game you cannot make excuses. And we said we had to get our fingers out and put in a good performance. And I think we did that.

“Last week was difficult and as captain I had to try and say a few words to get the lads going again. Now hopefully we can move on.

“We are disappointed we did not take all three points, but we can build on this and get back to winning ways.”

Carson’s Baggies manager Roberto Di Matteo said: “This is a tough league. Maybe the good start we had has given people a high level of expectation. But we know how hard it is to win matches. The opposition goalkeeper always plays well against us. It’s not the first time the keeper has had a good day.

“I have to be objective and say we had a bad 45 minutes against Barnsley. However, we have had a lot of minutes when we have not done so badly.”